CHAN Panels

Canada Haiti Action Network Activism at the World Social Forum in Venezuela

We hosted several forums on Haiti. We met American Haiti-solidarity organizations and a delegation from Haiti itself as well as Haitian expatriates, who provided excellent speakers on the plight of their nation.

The delegation from Canada was organized by the Canada Haiti Action Committee (CHAN) and included 19 people from six cities [including 2 from Hamilton]. From Haiti, there were four delegates living in exile and about ten from the country. Exiled leaders included women leaders Euvonie Georges-Auguste and Gladice DeLouis-Simone; Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, leader of the political rights organization September 30 Foundation (September 30 is the date of the first coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 1991); and Jean-Yvon Kernizan, a founder and leader of the Fanmi Lavalas party of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Haitian government, under Gerard Latortue at the time, had attempted to block the delegation from entering Caracas by asking the government to deny them entry. However, the Venezuelan government refused to comply, and allowed our speakers in. The new political leadership in Venezuela is difficult to pressure. One of our largest forums occurred on the airfield from which the 2002 military-media coup against President Chavez had been staged. In a delicious irony, it had been converted into World Social Forum grounds.

Haitian and Canadian delegates browse the World Social Forum grounds

The other forums were held in a nice, air-conditioned university. I wondered how the education ministry had been able to afford such a nice building until I learned it was the confiscated headquarters of the old oil ministry, which had been converted into a free public university.

Our forums were well-attended, but veteran participants of the World Social Forum were a little shocked at the speakers’ ferocious tone: many had experienced atrocities under Haiti’s occupation government. One thing that really set our events apart, however, was the Haitian delegates’ criticisms of Western human rights organizations that had been allegedly sent to help them. Euvonie Georges-Auguste, the leader of a women’s organization in Haiti, criticized non-governmental organizations for not responding to the needs of Haitians, but rather enacting canned agendas developed in Northern countries without consultation with the local poor.

Euvonie Georges-Auguste speaks with Jeb Sprague. "Euvonie Georges Auguste, Haitian exile and women's´ rights activist now living in St. Lucia, tied together [Margaret] Prescod´s points on lack of accountability and the work of organizations like that of Camille Chalmers´ when she spoke on the "absolute lack of connection between NGOs and grassroots organizers in Haiti".

An elected municipal official from Haiti also gave a fiery talk. He was one of thousands of elected and popular leaders who were also victims of the 2004 coup, daily facing threats and intimidation. Referring to the NGO’s, he stated, "My biggest problem today is not with Gerard Latortue or with George Bush. I know they will never help us. My problem is with those who speak in my name but who work against our movement for freedom."

Haitian Speaker Panel. On the left, American sociologist Professor William Robinson, author of Promoting Polyarchy and other writings, speaks on the new U.S. strategy. [From left to right what is the order of names here?]

The most moving speech was delivered by a woman living in Cite Soleil, a poor neighbourhood with the population of Hamilton, besieged by UN forces and the Haitian National Police. Her husband had recently been imprisoned without charge by the police. She decried the use of terms like “Chimeres” or “gangs” to describe the poor residents of the inner-city slum. Such language, she said, dehumanized already-suffering people. She demanded that human rights organizations speak to the people inside the slums and recognize them as human, instead of working with a government responsible for mass murder. That, she said, would be the first step to ending the violence against civilians.

Resident of Cite Soleil speaks out against oppression

Of course, these statements elicited some concern from NGO members in attendance. One member of a Haitian NGO funded by Canada’s Rights and Democracy criticized the Haitian delegates for standing up for only “one man…who does not represent the people,” referring to deposed President Aristide. But Aristide represented the democratic choice of the Haitian people, responded Ottawa CHAN activist Jean St. Vil. It said a lot about these “human rights” organizations that they did not appreciate the gravity of supporting an occupation that had removed an elected and legitimate government.

Jean St. Vil addresses the audience

All in all, CHAN was pleased to see so many forum delegates interested in learning more about Haiti.

Delegates rise for the Haitian national anthem

Jean-Yvon Kernizan, a founder and leader of the Fanmi Lavalas party of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

-By Brendan Stone, delegate, with text compiled from the official CHAN report